Cruise Bruise Forums
Latest Changes At Cruise Bruise
July 14, 2007
CRUISE BRUISE IS CLOSING THE DOORS?
. . . "There has been some speculation that we were getting ready to close the doors on Cruise Bruise. We had visitors outline to us the signs of that demise, some jubilantly, others with a sniffle." . . .
Today is the New Moon. I don't keep track of those kinds of things. My calendar doesn't even document it. There are times however, when I notice that there is an overly mischievous theme to events, and I suspect there is a New Moon. Inevitably, I am right, 100% of the time. I don't know what that says about me, or the New Moon, but today, it said it was time to announce changes at Cruise Bruise.
So, I checked and sure enough, it is a New Moon. It explained the long list of annoying people I came into contact with today, and the long list of things that seemed harder than usual for me to get right the first time. (Sorry Ken)
There has been some speculation that we were getting ready to close the doors on Cruise Bruise. We had visitors outline to us the signs of that demise, some jubilantly, others with a sniffle. The common sign, that everyone offered as proof, was our removal of the Cruise Bruise forums this week. They are gone, and they are gone for good.
As many of you know, we had a family tragedy of enormous proportions. The burden that placed on our family was immense. During this time, we were vulnerable to the far right (those so far right they were left), doing as all right opportunists do, they sought to kick us while we were down. Some complained that some of our videos were not loading, and that was akin to some long ago forgotten carnal sin, (thou shall keep thy website updated even when thy child is on death's door) and as such labeled us eDevils.
. . . "The forums were a test. We tried them, and it was plain to see from the beginning, that without a lot of work, they could easily become predator infested sewers" . . .
Others took sucker punches at victims, their families, and their supporters, and wrapped it all up in a Cruise Bruise welcome home gift for us. Most distressing to me, personally, was the attack on victims in our forums. While we were on bent knee at our daughter's bedside, feeling with only a little hope that she might pull through, our victims' family members were left to fend off those disgusting pro-industry cyber rambos, who get their jollies roaming the web looking for suffering victims and their families to kick in the teeth.
DOWNSIZING
Once I was back full-time, and noticed this had gone on, there was only one solution in my mind, the forums had to go. I shut them down that day, and have begun sweeping any sign of them from this website. That clean-up completed today, it was time to address those who were predicting a beginning to the end.
The forums were a test. We tried them, and it was plain to see from the beginning, that without a lot of work, they could easily become predator infested sewers, just like many of the pro-cruise industry forums, and other industry forums on the web. I vowed when they were launched, if that became a problem, I would shut them down.
Truth be known, the forums had nothing at all that the website didn't have. It was duplication, that only served to be redundant. This is not a gain for the cowardly cyber rambos, it is a victory for the victims.
We have cut off one more soapbox from which the rambos can stomp their jackboots, as they spew a cookie cutter mantra they had taken too little time to properly learn rendering it only minimally effective, at persuading the least educated readers among their audience. Their rant is not convincing, it is only annoyingly loud.
I would like to say, that if anything, those attacks on our victims and their families only gave us more determination to keep this site up, running and growing.
MORE DOWNSIZING
It is true we are downsizing from now through the end of the year. We collectively own over 30 websites, though most are linked together to some degree, they are owned and managed independently by several family members. With one family member now unable to assist, we had to take stock of what time resources we now had, and how we would be able to distribute them.
Clearly, with our daughter now disabled, we need to make some hard choices. To that end, I've given away twelve websites in the past month, and have most of the rest up for sale. We are keeping our favorite seven websites, those we either just love to work, or those that have special meaning to us. Cruise Bruise is one of the seven we are keeping, as it has special meaning to us.
We feel what we have left will be easy to manage given our new responsibilities, and will leave us plenty of time to help our daughter and her son heal and grow together.
We continue to work on the design change, which should be completed by the end of the weekend. Then, we are getting back to our health inspections and getting those up to date. That work should be done by the end of July.
